The Guardians originally hail from the planet Maltus, a peaceful world where its inhabitants discovered immortality and devoted themselves to scientific exploration. However, when a Maltusan called Krona wanted to witness the origin of the universe, he inadvertently introduced evil into the world. As penance, a group of Maltusans sought to contain the evil and protect potential victims, going through several methods before creating the Green Lantern Corps.
That description makes the Guardians sound wise and benevolent, which is more or less how they were portrayed in the first years following their introduction in Green Lantern #1 (1960) by John Broome and Gil Kane. However, over the years, the Guardians have revealed themselves to be easily blinded by their own hubris and given to manipulation. In the comics, both Hal and John regularly butt heads with their bosses, which means that Hal’s skepticism in the show is well-founded.
Green Lantern Corps
As part of their mission, the Guardians divided the known universe into 3600 space sectors, covering all of space except for the lawless Vega System. Each sector is patrolled by at least one Green Lantern, generally a native of the sector who is selected according to the following criteria: the ring-wielder must be fearless, they must be honest, and they must be nearby when the previous Lantern dies or has their status revoked. After selection, the new Lanterns are then brought to Oa, the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps. There, they receive basic training—most often by the surly Lantern Kilowog—and then are paired with a more experienced Lantern.
In the pilot for Lanterns, the Hal-o-Gram makes a point of saying that Lanterns aren’t trained by people from their own sector, something that makes sense for the show, but isn’t part of comic book canon. In fact, current comic book canon states that each sector should have at least two Lanterns, if not more.
In addition to those who remain in their sector, there are also other, higher-echelons of Lanterns. Traditionally, a select elite group of Lanterns serve as the Honor Guard, stationed on Oa to go on extraordinary missions. Recently, Grant Morrison introduced Alpha Lanterns, a sort of internal affairs of the Green Lantern Corps, who police the police. And then there are the members of The Corpse, the black ops arm of the Corps that does the Guardians’ dirty work.
If that’s not enough, the past 20 years of Green Lantern stories have saw the addition of other Corps, separate from the Green Lanterns, but with similar power sets. The arch-enemy Sinestro formed the Sinestro Corps or the Yellow Lantern Corps, who channel the ability to create fear instead of willpower through their rings. The Star Sapphires use love, while the Blue Lanterns channel hope, and Red Lanterns use their rage. Lanterns doesn’t seem interested in exploring these other Corps, but it’s hard to believe at least one of them won’t be mentioned at some point in the series.
